The Second Sunday of Easter
Readings for the Second Sunday of Easter

First Published: Sunday, April 23, 2006

Divine Mercy

Reflection:

Divine Mercy Sunday- May we all look to the Lord this day and offer our prayers and hopes that his Divine Mercy be shed upon ourselves and the whole world.

The Divine Mercy Chaplet : http://marian.org/divinemercy/chaplet.html

he atmosphere must have been incredibly tense. The Jewish Leadership, part of their societal government had seized their teacher and mentor, had turned him over to the Romans, and had him brutally executed. They had gone so far as to bribe one of their own number to turn him in. They were wondering; "How far would they go to purge themselves of Jesus? Would they come for his principle followers as well? This was a cold and unfeeling theocracy. Would they take the women too and humiliate and kill them?"

Jesus had tried to prepare them. He had laid his path along side the predictive scripture of the Prophet Isaiah and told them of the suffering he must endure. He told them just days before they took him that, should the temple of his body be destroyed he would raise it up in three days. Some of them may have wondered and even been concerned by those words. Jesus was, after all, a wise and holy man. Sometimes, though, what he said was just over their heads, and they just didnt anticipate what was coming.

Even when he celebrated the Passover with them and changed the meaning of the prayers of blessing, they did not see it coming. Even when he said to them gathered there in that upper room, reclining at table, that one of their company would betray him, they did not understand. They all told him they would not do such a thing and all of them (but one) could not imagine any of the others betraying him. And had not the Lord, until just a few days before been teaching in the Temple precincts? They could have taken him then. So the words he spoke there and even in the garden, while disturbing, did not prepare them for what was to happen.

When the guards came to take him, lead by Judas, the light finally dawned upon them and they realized that Jesus was not just speaking in allegory earlier, he was telling them what was going to happen literally. And now it was too late to do anything but what they did - they all ran. Some ran far, others just hid in the bushes. They must have overheard talk from the guards concerning themselves; "What about his followers, should we take them in as well?" Given the adrenalin rush of the previous few minutes, this must have pushed several of them close enough to hear, to take off even further. Only Peter and John remained close enough to recount what followed first hand. Yet, even Peter, the strongest in faith of the 12, denied him three times that night.

They witnessed that brutal scourging by the Roman cohort and the humiliation handed out by the people who had just the week before been cheering him as he entered the city in triumph. And they were afraid. They did not know who to trust, so they cowered in that upper room. Was it the same room where they had eaten the Passover with Jesus just days earlier? Scripture does not say, only that they were there in fear of the Jews.

We celebrated Christ Risen a week ago. Having been given the faith by those who went before us, we knew what came next and rejoiced. Even while we did that, the disciples were trying to sort out what parts of the amazing things Jesus told them were parables and allegory and what parts were literally true (no one had written this story for them to see the bold headings "Parable of the Talents" or some other teaching lesson) and what they should expect. I can imagine John saying; "Holy cow, (it probably translated differently in Aramaic) what if when the Lord talked about wheat falling to the ground and dying, that meant us too?" Or Peter saying; "What did he mean, I am a rock and upon this rock I will build my Church?"

As usual, the women were that bravest. They were the ones who went to the Tomb so that all that should be done for the dead was done. The other disciples were probably asking them not to risk it. To them belongs the first honor of seeing the empty tomb and understanding. They were the ones to hear first the news that was sung by all the choirs of heaven, the same choirs that announced his birth, that "He is risen! He is no longer here. See where they laid him."

And now Jesus comes to his closest friends, still hiding in fear, and says to them; "Peace be with you." Fr. Jeff, our Pastor, preached an eloquent homily on Easter Sunday about the peace of Christ and what a wonderful gift that was for us. At the time Jesus first appeared to the disciples and gave them those words of peace- it must have been necessary to keep them from fleeing the room. He gave them that first gift of peace, the one they most needed. The blocks fell into place as they saw his form - the same as always, yet different. The expressions they had last seen during the pain and sorrow of his horrific passion and death were replaced by a wise and somehow sad countenance they had seen for three years.

He breathed on them and they were at peace. He spoke to them and their fear melted away like wax to be replaced by joy. He was with them again and they were whole.

But we were not there to see the Risen Lord stand and walk and breath. Thomas was us, was he not? He could not believe what his friends told him when he returned. He was probably thinking ("What if they are hysterical?"). After all, they must have been jumping around like wild men, shouting with glee - he is risen, we have seen him, praise God, he is returned to us. If we walked into a room where we had left our closest friends a short time earlier, cowering in fear, and found them jumping around like that what would we have felt?

So he took the wind right out of their sails by saying what was on his mind. "I do not believe you."

That must have been like a bucket of cold water thrown on these rejoicing figures. They probably stopped mid-prance and started trying to get him to understand. "Thomas, he was here. He came to us even though the doors were locked and he stood right here with us. You have to believe."

Again Thomas sobers them with; "I will not believe it until I put my fingers into the nail prints in his hands and my hand into the wound in his side." If they had been my friends in the same situation, they would have just shrugged and gone off to celebrate more among themselves.
For our sake, however, St. Thomas, Doubting Thomas, redeemed himself in spades when the Lord returned and he was there. He was the first to take the leap from; "Jesus our teacher and friend has returned to us as he said." To; "Jesus truly is the Christ, the Son of God." It was Thomas, not Peter and not John, who said to Jesus; "My Lord and my God." It was the doubter who understood for us the true nature of the man who is God and labeled him so for the first time and the rest of time.

It is Thomas we need to be like as we struggle with our faith without seeing. It is Thomas we must emulate in our own on going conversation. It is from our hearts we must respond to him; "My Lord and my God!" Pax